Cycle Speedway Weekly Reports

Over seventy young riders contested the fourth and final qualifying round for the national competition at a bright and breezy Harbourside with the host club confirming their positions at the top of each of the two catgeories. East Newport edged out Exeter for the second spot in the Under 12's and Horspath held on against East Newport in the Youth & Girls division.

Danny Reeks outpaced Under 8 event leader Nathan Gouden in the curtain raiser while Owen Tidball provided Exeter with the first of two A final successes in the Under 10's ahead of Max Russell-Sharpe. British Under 13 champion Wil Tidball made the most of gate 1 in the Under 12's A final with the impressive Shane Hanmer not far behind him after 4 laps.

Good action in the Under 14's showcased the talented Swindon duo of Ethan Greenslade and Jake Neighbour and it was Greenslade who picked up the trophy after holding off a challenge from speedy Jay Briggs. Under 16 front runner Aaron Smith looked to have blown his chances with a tapes exclusion in his opening race but wins in his other 3 rides saw him scrape into the A final on countback with regulars Jesse Moore, Hayden Chant and Jacob Soper. Smith took full advantage of his gate 1 to bank 25 more GP points ahead of his Hellingly rival.

With 4 Under 18's and 8 Girls entered for the final two competitions, the two events were run together and provided the lions share of the day's falls and incidents, especially the girls where heavy tumbles for Rebecca Davies and Cerys Glover in the heats caused delays while a similar fate for Lauren Hookway in the A final caused a dramatic change of fortunes. The Exeter rider was challenging Charlie Jane Herbert for the lead when they tangled up and while Hookway hit the deck, Livvy Horsley round the pair of them to take the trophy. Shane Bentley celebrated his annual visit with a win in the action packed Under 18's contest.

Once again the BYJL provided a great showcase for the regions young talent but the wisdom of staging the event during half-term will have to be re-examined as significant numbers of competition regulars were missing from the line-ups due to holidays.

Wednesfield Aces remain top of the Midland Cycle Speedway League after a big score win over a under strengh Stoke side from the potteries. Stoke had to use several of their junior riders to make up their team but the meeting held plenty of entertainment with the Aces' top riders very sportingly slowing the pace when up against the Stoke youngsters giving them good racing experience. There was some good racing between the Aces and Stoke's top riders with Stoke's Lewis Bates the match top scorer on 18 points, Chris Jewkes top scorer for the Aces on 17 points, a very sporting match.

The division 2 meeting was run in the same vein as the first team match with Stoke having to use the same riders that rode in their first team and giving away 51 penalty points to Wednesfield before they even got a stride a bike, this rule applies to riders that have rode in the first team match and are over the age of 16 years but the visitors with no chance of recovering those points very sportingly did what the Aces did in the first team match and slowed the pace a little when up against the Aces junior riders, the Aces ran out winners of the fixture without the use of the penalty points given.

HETHERSETT HAWKS / SWONTON & CO had key riders unavailable for their South East Division 1 meeting at East London but nearly pulled off a surprise victory against the experienced Londoners. An incident-packed heat one eventually saw a 4-3 win for Hethersett and a couple of race defeats were followed by a 7-3 win from Nick Myhill and Dave Martin to keep the Hawks in touch. Hethersett got in front again with another 7-3 win in heat 10 from Lee Grange and Leigh Cossey. David Adams, in his first match for over a year, won heat 13 with a good supporting role by Josh Herring to extend the visitors' lead to three points but in the last two heats the lack of match fitness told as the home team turned the deficit around.

The Hawks had only two riders at the Wosskow Brown British Youth & Junior League Regional Round at Somersham but Oliver Buxton (7 points, 2nd in B Final in U16s) and Tiffany Collins (10 points, 2nd in A Final in Girls) did enough to get the Club runners-up spot in the Over-12s Division and qualify for the National Rounds in July to September.

The Club received a big disappointment this week when British Cycling announced that the proposed Test Match between Gt.Britain and Poland, due to be at Hethersett on July 31, has been postponed. The whole series has been cancelled following no commitment from the Polish contingent.

This Saturday the Club's U10 and U14 teams are in League action at Harford Park, Norwich while on Sunday the first team face a daunting task away at Elite League Birmingham in the British Team Cup.

South and South West League RoundupReport: Graham Sutton

Three matches in the South and South Wales League had a significant impact at the top of the league table with defending champions Horspath suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of Newport for whom Oli Sidwick and Jack Harrold were outstanding.

Meanwhile, down the M4 at the Oasis Centre, Poole had an easier than expected time as they cruised to a 20 point victory and two league points to take them to the top of the table. Swindon were hampered by the absence of heavy hitter Andy Hill and injury to key rider Danny Harper who fell heavily after three unbeaten rides and required hospital treatment.

The most controversial result of the day was in South Wales where East Newport recorded their first win of the season in a close affair with Exeter. The Devon club thought they had won the match 87-86 but were deducted four points after Andy Stone was twice excluded for racing offences. Exeter argued that the new rule only applied to rider behaviour and will appeal to the League to have the two league points reinstated.